60_What is MDMA Assisted Therapy with Gina Gratza

Normalize PTSD

Gina Gratza, MS, LMFT is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Licensed Psilocybin Facilitator, and Psychedelic Educator and Researcher.
Social Media:

• Websites: www.ginagratza.com & www.lookingglasscounselingpdx.com
• Instagram: @gina.gratza
• Affiliated Websites: https://www.chrisstauffermd.com/, https://www.innertrek.org/, & https://www.coracenter.org/

Gina is the owner of Looking Glass Counseling, which supports individuals with complex trauma and eating disorders. She also operates a coaching practice where she practices legal psilocybin facilitation and leads women's empowerment groups supporting preparation and integration practices. Gina teaches at InnerTrek, a psilocybin facilitator education program. And she also supports psychedelic research as a study therapist with the Social Neuroscience and Psychotherapy Lab. Gina works with the Cora Center, InnerTrek Services, and Chariot in offering psilocybin facilitation in Portland, Oregon.
One of the coolest things that jumped out to me about MDMA assisted therapy was how it removes the fear aspect of historical trauma or memories and allows you to go into those spaces with compassion and love. That’s probably as hard to read for some of you as it was for me to write. I am not a super lovey-dovey or overly expressive person. I will often say a dumb joke to avoid direct expression of my deeper feelings. I have talked to several people now who have first-hand experience with this therapeutic practice, and they all said the same: so much love and compassion.

I know for me I went a decade without feeling those kinds of feelings. I went so long that I began to think that how I felt was normal. Dark, irritated, uncomfortable, easily annoyed, numb, and so on. If I could have tried this type of therapy, I believe it would have expedited my healing process. I would have been more motivated because it would have been more obvious that I was not okay. I feel like the changes within myself were so subtle that I wasn’t aware how bad it had gotten. I was so far off baseline and for so long that when I began to heal the good feelings coming back felt wrong. I would pick fights or create problems to have those negative feelings come back. I felt uncomfortable when I was not in a dysfunctional state.
Resources Mentioned:

• Somatic psychotherapy (sensorimotor psychotherapy)
• Internal Family Systems
• Therapeutic Relationship
• ‘The Language of Emotions’ - Karla McLaren
• ‘Trauma and Recovery’ - Dr. Judith Herman
• ‘The Body Keeps the Score’ - Dr. Bessel van der Kolk
• ‘Waking the Tiger’ - Dr. Peter Levine
• ‘How to do the work’ - Dr. Nicole LePera
• ‘The Myth of Normal’- Dr. Gabor Mate
• 'My Grandmother's Hands’ - Resmaa Menakem
• ‘In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts’ - Dr. Gabor Mate
• Psychedelic assisted therapy
• EMDR
• Meditation
• Learning to trust yourself and building that self-trust
• Be in relation with your nervous system
• Painting
• Inner healing intelligence
• Self-compassion practices
• Socializing
• Support structure
• Human interaction
• Developing your internal dialogue
• Kundalini yoga

We would really appreciate a share and like on IG, FB, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Twitter. I am always looking for veterans or first responders who have PTSD to share how you have raised the quality of your life to hopefully shorten that journey for others. I would love to have a chat and share that knowledge with the community.